By Here is a story from Waygook.org about an assault committed against an expat in Korea. He received a hairline fracture to the skull, a bruised face, and 70-80 percent of the skin on his knees were gone. He was tackled from behind into a brick wall which knocked him unconscious. He woke up with the guy kneeling on him while he punched his face and slapped him with a shoe. Allegedly between 7-10 Korean people stood by and watched it happen without intervening. The criminal ended up getting off with paying a $300 settlement and not have to pay for the victim’s extensive medical bills. You can read more about the assault at the link. However, this assault reminded me when Michael Hurt got into it with a drunk ajushi.
However, I figure is a good reason to once again share this advice with everyone that hasn’t read before already, that you can expect a fair trial in Korea, sort of….
5:15 am on June 20th, 2011 1
Can’t find anything recent about what this, and I checked 5 pages back on that site.
In any case, the only way the criminal would get off paying 300$ and no medical bills is if the victim accepted that settlement.
5:31 am on June 20th, 2011 2
PS. I wouldn’t have taken any amount money. I’d have let him go to jail.
7:10 am on June 20th, 2011 3
I was reading about the Hurt encounter. Then I read the comments. That was interesting. Those (few) that pointed out that perhaps he had brought it on himself by not leaving the area were attacked. Very combative. Perhaps he did bring it on himself.
But I had some not so pleasant situations myself during my time in Korea. But not many. Nothing ever turned physical.
Also I have noted that if a non-Asian is ever seen with a Korean woman and a drunk Korean man is near, you should leave. Nothing good will come of it.
I remember an incident with an MP and his Korean WIFE in the subway that you posted on.
9:04 am on June 20th, 2011 4
How long ago was this? Is this done by Korean to the foreigner? You are missing some important details.
11:40 am on June 20th, 2011 5
???
The link is to a 2007 ROKDrop article.
2:29 pm on June 20th, 2011 6
Uhh,,, playing expat/minority/discrimination card? I’m sure the violence wasn’t called for and the punishment was too light. but let’s not forget it happens in both extremes.
Should I remind everyone about 4/29 LA riot? or some posters here too young to know about that incident?
2:37 pm on June 20th, 2011 7
Koreans decisively engaged looters with small arms fire in order to protect their lives and property and restore order…
2:57 pm on June 20th, 2011 8
#8 Kangaji, yeah the rioters and looters didn’t see that one coming. Good Job Korean store owners in LA.
3:06 pm on June 20th, 2011 9
I was in the Casbah in An Jung RI one night YEARS ago. I watched as two black GIs ran after a couple of Koreans. SHORTLY, the two black GIs came running back, being pursued by about six Koreans. Then the six Koreans came running back with 12 or so black GIs in pursuit. Then they came back — and the crowd kept growing on both sides.
I sat back down and ordered another Jim&coke. Not gonna get caught in the middle of THAT chit.
Ahhh. Good Times!
3:15 pm on June 20th, 2011 10
JoeC, some how the linked got duplicated. I have fixed the link back to the Waygook.org link.
3:55 pm on June 20th, 2011 11
I’m sure the authorities took into account the fact that had he not been there, nothing would have happened. I’m also fairly certain there were some unique circumstances involved which we do not understand.
/As has already been pointed out, we do not have all the facts.
4:02 pm on June 20th, 2011 12
This guy was a good samaritan who was doing all the right things by Korean law — not getting physically involved but calling the police instead — when he got broadsided.
The attacker sounds like a nutcase, and that kind of person needs to be off the streets. He was attacking a kid, he’d had legal trouble for some prior attack as well, and then this. (Though the fact that this violent jackass has Koreans among his victims as well undermines the idea some stated that this attack stemmed from racial animus, was “anti-waygook.”)
This demonstrates the importance of having a legal information clearinghouse for expats. He had a lawyer, but it seems things didn’t go the way they should have, which might have been different if there were an army of advocates on his side. Given the crooked behavior of some hagwon owners, it would seem there’s a demand and necessity for such things.
4:03 pm on June 20th, 2011 13
GI Korea wrote:
In what way?
4:44 pm on June 20th, 2011 14
“Though the fact that this violent jackass has Koreans among his victims as well undermines the idea some stated that this attack stemmed from racial animus”
So, the fact that someone has been violent toward people of his own race negates the idea that an attack on a foreigner was racially motivated…
6:35 pm on June 20th, 2011 15
After reading all that the only fault I can really find is that he turned his back on an obviously drunk violent man. Otherwise he did the right thing. I don’t trust the legal system inside SK, to often the judges see it as they have to protect the Korean Image from the foreigner.
7:36 pm on June 20th, 2011 16
usinkorea wrote:
Undermines, usinkorea, undermines. Not a synonym of negate.
Let me put in another way: What is there to indicate this attack by a Korean on a foreigner was racially motivated, particularly given that (a) his prior attacks, including the concurrent one, was on a Korean, and (b) the attack was spurred by the victim picking up his cell phone to call the police?
Other that the victim being a foreigner
and the attacker chanting “Taehan Min’guk!”, there appears to be nothing supporting it being racially motivated, and that is undermined given that there was clearly no racial motivation in his other violent attacks.8:32 pm on June 20th, 2011 17
Yes. Heard it all before. About times something happened to me – from the foreigner wanting to hold onto his vision of Korea. (I’m sure you could say the same about me, right…)
8:39 pm on June 20th, 2011 18
Ok. I owe Kushibo this one. Read the full texts. He’s right. It seems race had nothing to do with this one.
My apologies for speaking without reading carefully to start with…
8:43 pm on June 20th, 2011 19
Usinkorea, your victim mentality is most unbecoming. I made no comment whatsoever about your case. I made a comment about this case in response to the facile notion that this one — simply by virtue of it being a Korean attacker and a 외국인 victim — was racially motivated when the facts do not support that.
You seem to be hinging the existence of racially motivated attacks on that statement. This case is a single, individual case. Even if I am right, it does not negate the existence of actual racially motivated attacks on foreigners. There most certainly are some. Off the top of my head, the dumbbell murder in Uijongbu (?) and the long knife murder are glaring examples.
I’m fairly certain there are others that don’t get reported. Moreover, there may be attacks that are not caused by racial animus (i.e., they would likely have happened even if the victim were also Korean) but where racist feelings exacerbated the situation.
But the attacker and the victim being of different races does not in and of itself make a racially motivated crime. And in this case, there’s little or nothing to suggest that that’s what it is.
8:49 pm on June 20th, 2011 20
usinkorea (#19), I thank you for that comment, and in light of that, perhaps what I said in the first paragraph of #20 was a bit harsh.
My hat is off to anyone in an online debate, particularly one where emotion-laden issues are at work, can step back and admit they may have been wrong or even apologize.
This kind of issue is something I take to heart because I think that among many foreign residents the default, knee-jerk position is to assume a them-versus-us mentality any time something goes awry.
Indeed, it is sometimes the case, but certainly not always. But that knee-jerk view is detrimental because (a) it often turns hopelessly exacerbates an already bad situation, and (b) it makes a lot of people spend their entire time living in the country unnecessarily with a chip on their shoulder thinking the whole population is out to get them. That in turn can actually generate such problems.
9:14 pm on June 20th, 2011 21
Race had nothing to do with it but it was a case of an escaped mental patient? How does that exonerate Korea? Shouldn’t violent mental patients be behind bars and not given the $300 “Get out of jail free” card?
9:16 pm on June 20th, 2011 22
7-10 Koreans watching while laughing their asses off? Yeah, it had nothing to do with race.
9:22 pm on June 20th, 2011 23
Who’s trying to “exonerate Korea”? If you made the statement that the Korean judicial system is a fail when it lets violent attackers go free or get minimal jail terms that allow them to do the same attacks over and over again, I’d be the first to agree.
Where did it say they were “laughing their asses off”?
9:40 pm on June 20th, 2011 24
I have run into foreigners who can’t accept firsthand accounts (my own included) because they don’t want to associate Korea (a country they chose to live in and experience) with racism. But, this was not the case with Kushibo and this incident.
I would say it probably doesn’t involve race all the way around, because in researching the GI Crimes issue, I’ve come across cases involving just Koreans where very light sentences or fines were handed out when they would get much worse in the US. I’ve found that often GIs convicted of crimes get (light) sentences in line with Koreans for similar crimes.
I think the victim here had been Korean, he’d have had a tough time getting much more out of the courts and a jobless attacker.
It sucks, but it happens here.
9:49 pm on June 20th, 2011 25
Koreans watching — I doubt the Koreans would have just watched if it had been a drunk white guy on a Korean, but I’ve seen both when it comes to Korean-on-Korean altercations: I’ve seen strangers move in to break it up. I’ve seen people just watch.
I don’t know how much this has changed in ten years, but back then, Korea was mostly a “not any of my business” country. In general, they didn’t want to get involved, but I have seen them do it. I guess primarily when it was man against a woman.
Seen a few women-on-women altercations where nobody did anything.
Saw a young adult beat the crap out of a middle schooler until someone stopped in traffic on the narrow street and stopped it (while others watched). (I was too far away at the start.)
11:22 pm on June 20th, 2011 26
The attacker wasn’t motivated by race but you can be sure that the court decision was. At the minimum the attacker should of had to pay the hospital bills for the injured and then any additional blood money negotiated. Being unable to pay the blood money usually equals some jail time. In SK there is no separate civil courts system, the criminal system determines it all.
And yeah the courts / police are motivated by race, it quickly becomes a “foreigners vs us Koreans” case where the Judge feels compelled to side with the Korean, to preserve national face. Utter BS.
11:30 pm on June 20th, 2011 27
I agree the foreigner is going to be found at fault in most cases except the too obvious – like this one.
I’m not sure, though, that an unemployed person found guilty of the same crime against a Korean would end up with a larger fine (including medical bills) or sit in jail.
Normally, yes, that is the case, but I’m not sure with someone like this:
The victim said they had found out the guy had been found guilty of an assault a couple of years previous and had yet to pay a Won in the settlement, and obviously he wasn’t still in jail…
I can think of two cases off the top of my head where the court (judges) clearly showed racial (national) bias. The 1993 subway brawl and the 2000 Yongsan mortuary dumping.
Besides the fact most foreigners are going to be found guilty or be the ones arrested regardless of who the aggressor really was, my reading of perhaps a dozen or two dozen cases involving GIs has found sentences in line with similar cases I could find involving just Koreans.
12:16 am on June 21st, 2011 28
The missing part of this equation which is not fully adding up is…
…what did the foreigner look like in court.
If he showed up in cut-offs, sandals made from old tires, and the smell of pot seeping out of his scruffy facial hair, it all makes perfect sense at every level from the attack to the verdict.
Bad things do happen to good people… but in Korea, every case of something like this I have ever seen had clear reasons that were easy to recognize once the full story was known…
…not always correct reasons by all standards… but clear reasons by local standards.
Maybe this guy just had a chain of bad luck… or maybe he encouraged a bit of that bad luck through his look, actions, and attitude, in a society that has higher minimal expectations for those things than Back Home.
Before the haters come after me, keep in mind that I am not saying this is the case here… but that it is most often the case.
12:30 am on June 21st, 2011 29
If we’re going to judge this by local customs, then this comes into play:
“Blood was streaming from the kids nose and I shouted Oh my god what are you doing or holy Sh*t or something along those lines.”
I’ve heard a number of Korean adults justify attacks on someone by saying “Well, he disrespected him by yelling at him.”
Mind you, the much more common thing I saw in Korea, particularly the 2 years I lived above an old-style soju area, was for (drunk) Koreans to not just yell at each other but also lay hands on (tugging on clothing usually) with — nothing more happening. I was amazed, because once you violent someone’s personal space in the US by laying hands on them, it’s usually on…
So, escalating to punches is more rare in Korea (or at least it was).
But, even back then, I heard adults say that attacking someone physically for them cursing you was fairly natural.
And I don’t know how many ajumma scuffles I witnessed on weekends at the E-Mart in Pundang. It was generally the Korean women who felt being disrespect verbally was enough to excuse physical fights.
2:42 am on June 21st, 2011 30
In Korea, people fall off of buildings all the time and they also drown.
When the legal system failed to provide favorable outcomes to some in the US, the people took justice into their own hands.
I’m in no way saying someone should get the guy so drunk he passes out and take him to the roof of a building where he could accidentally fall off when he vomits nor am I saying you should through him off a bridge – that is inhuman, illegal, and unjust. Unlike the court system that is fair and just in its decisions.
There is no easy answer and listening to all the frustration in the post on Waygook is disheartening.
2:49 am on June 21st, 2011 31
usinkorea wrote:
My thoughts exactly. The news is full of stories where the citizenry is angry because some slap-on-the-wrist punishment for an egregious crime, where both criminal and victim are Korean.
At the same time, however, we should note that this case is not yet over. TexasChicken (?) will be back in court on July 14 to see how this turns out. He doesn’t believe the guy will get jail time or end up paying for his bills (around 850K won off the top of my head), but who knows?
3:02 am on June 21st, 2011 32
someotherguy wrote:
Since the exact same type of thing happens with Korean victims of Korean attackers, there is nothing to go on to come to that conclusion, other than the victim being a foreigner and the attacker being Korean.
The attacker is unemployed, and that more than anything is probably a major determinant of the outcome. Courts take into account a lot of mitigating circumstances, and poverty or unemployment are major ones. Heck, class envy used to be a workable defense (“I stole because I was so jealous of all my friend’s expensive clothes!”).
And although he’s an abusive m.fer, the court may have also thought throwing a father in jail may have made things even worse for the kid. Like sexual assault, a lot of old-school judges are clueless about domestic violence (recall the case of the girl whose rapist relatives were required by the court to keep taking care of her).
Having observed hours of court proceedings involving foreigners over several different dates while dealing with my own legal matter, I got the complete opposite impression about the courts.
As for the police, the po-po collectively let so many things slide with the fo-fo that it’s not funny.
3:10 am on June 21st, 2011 33
ChickenHead wrote:
That’s a mighty big assumption to be making about the guy.
Setting aside that we don’t actually know how the case will turn out, there are so many other plausible explanations (it does add up) for the low punishment that there really is no need to go after the foreigner for what he’s wearing.
The unemployment as a mitigating factor or even the court not wanting to take a child’s dad away are both very plausible reasons.
Besides, the foreigner is not the one on trial. If he took the stand, the judges aren’t going to look at him in flip-flops and say, “Oh, that Korean must go free!”
I agree with you about this in general, but there are enough possible mitigators not involving TexasChicken that they provide a better explanation. Seriously, the poverty defense is big.
Ah, now I see the similarities with Michael Hurt.